Brussels Adventures!

October 9, 10, 11, & 12, 2014

So we didn't start this trip off any better than the last one. Nikki was running late and told Lia, Melanie and I that she would just meet us at the bus station. What we didn't realize is how late we were running until we were on the train heading to the bus station. Unfortunately, Nikki's phone had died so we couldn't even see if she was going to make it. We finally found the bus station with three minutes to spare and were convinced that Nikki had missed it. To our surprise, she had actually beat us there and was already waiting in line for the bus. Relieved, we got everything situated and finally made it onto the bus. 

At around 6 in the morning on Friday, we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. Thinking we could check in early, we made our way to the hostel only to find out we couldn't check in until 3 in the afternoon. So, we decided to take a walk around and explore Brussels and see what is around for the rest of our trip.

On Saturday, we decided to see the sights and checked out Mannekin Pis, The Grand Place, and an assortment of other sites around as well as a chocolate demonstration. We walked pretty much all day and wound up getting lost on the way back to the hostel. So much for trying to navigate using maps on our phones without using our data because it charged extra while in Belgium. We went back at night to find some dinner, which is when I tried mussels for the first time, and found the Everard't Serclaes. It is a statue on a wall that you are supposed to rub for good luck. We had been looking for it since we got there and we finally found a bunch of people standing around a wall and realized, there it is!

On Sunday morning, Nikki and I woke up early and went to take a tour of Mini Europe! It had miniature statues of all the major landmarks throughout Europe. They are laid out and organized by country and you are given a booklet that explains each piece that you are looking at. Nikki and I officially 'did Europe' in 2 hours.

When it came to catching our bus, we almost missed that too. Running around the city, we passed familiar things but that was because it was the path we took on the way to the center every day. We didn't realize that we needed to find other familiar things to get to where we were going. Eventually we found it and, luckily, they were having some issues and we made it onto the bus. Since there isn't a bridge connecting anything and the UK, our bus got onto a ferry. This time, we got into a train and took the underwater tube to get back. We had to stay on the bus so I didn't get to see through the windows. Luckily, I'll be doing it again in less than a week with Justin, so there will be plenty of pictures of that!